There is not a day that goes by where I am not acutely aware of the sinfulness of my heart and the depravity of my flesh. Just because we are Christians and saved by Christ’s death on the cross, it does not mean that we are immune to the Adamic fall and the effects of original sin.

Because of Adam’s sin, all of us are imputed by it, and as a result, all of humanity sinned in Adam. Since we participated actually in Adam’s sin and were seminally there, depravity is total and we inherit both the corrupt nature and guilt of our first parents.

As Paul wrote in Romans 3:9-10,

What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written

“None is righteous, no, not one;
no one understands;
no one seeks for God.

Those of us seminarians and men in ministry are not immune to the corruption of the human nature either. We are tempted, and sometimes even sin. Even while we strive to submit to the authority of Christ in our lives, our fleshly bodies often fails us. While we who are baptized with the Holy Spirit do not want to sin, I myself can certainly testify that I often do what I do not want to do — the very things that we hate! The free will God has blessed us with only desires to attain its own pleasures and never the pleasures found in Christ. Whatever obedience we seemingly muster out of ourselves in this pilgrimage is the work of Christ in us through the power of the Holy Spirit, and thus, it is not I who by my own strength obeys but it is God who enables me by grace to work out my salvation with fear in trembling (Philippians 2:12-13).

As Paul himself testified in Romans 7:13-20,

For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate… So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.

As I suffer through the current heat wave in Toronto, I am again reminded of the truths in the those statements. It is very rare not to see a scantily clad girl on the street, at just about every corner I turn, wearing next to nothing and showing just about everything. Since it is the summer, modesty is out, immodesty is in-style and more popular than ever. The thirty-five degree celsius weather only exasperates the problem and provides plenty of meat for men to gawk at, women wearing even less because it is very hot and humid.

I admit that I myself have succumb to the temptation of looking, and even looking twice. It is extremely difficult to look away and bounce the eyes (see it once, never look again) from someone wearing a very-low-cut tank top, when turning around to look a different way only means somebody else wearing very-short-shorts are right there starring you in the face. The only way I know how to protect my eyes is to just close them shut — but certainly this is no way live, or cross a street or enjoy a frappucino with a friend at Starbucks!

In Jeremiah 17:9, God reminds us of a truth that is sometimes hard to swallow — even for us so-called Christians:

The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately sick;
who can understand it?

In terms of “total depravity”, our inability to submit to God and do good is total, and the reason for our inability to do good is beyond simply our fleshly bodies and is found in the core of each person’s nature. Christ our Lord Himself reminds us loudly in Matthew 5:27-30 that the sins of the flesh are the symptoms of the bigger problem — sins of the heart. The temptations we struggle to overcome as His disciples have their root in our hearts. “But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Thus, sin does not occur when we succumb to temptation outwardly but long before that, when we sin and lust in the heart. When we are yearn for pleasures other than Christ Himself, we fall short of glory and substitute as our god the idol of fleshly pleasures.

If I were not a Christian, I think I would probably keep on looking, and looking, and starring at those immodestly dressed women. But thankfully, I have been given new eyes to see and savor the goodness that is in the treasures of Christ. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to be seeking to store up spiritual treasures in heaven rather than fleshly treasures on earth. This goal of avoiding the sin of the eyes is an especially difficult one for men especially. There really is no avoidance of its temptations. It does not get any easier once you’re in a relationship, or even when you get married. Such temptations of the flesh will always haunt us until we are given new bodies. And boy, do we want to escape the futility of this life!!

In Chapter 25 of the book “Pierced by the Word“, John Piper provides an acronym to help in the war against these sinful desires, a strategy that I have found very useful: A N T H E M.

A–AVOID as much as is possible and reasonable the sights and situations that arouse unfitting desire.

N–Say NO to every lustful thought within five seconds. And say it with the authority of Jesus Christ.

T–TURN the mind forcefully toward Christ as a superior satisfaction. Saying no will not suffice. You must move from defense to offense.

H–HOLD the promise and the pleasure of Christ firmly in your mind until it pushes the other imagesout. “Fix your eyes on Jesus (Hebrews 12:1).

E–ENJOY a superior satisfaction. Cultivate the capacities for pleasure in Christ.

M–MOVE into a useful activity away from idleness and other vulnerable behaviors. Lust grows in the garden of leisure. Find a good work to do, and do it with all your might.

We waste our lives every time we treasure life above Christ. Let us not waste it ever again, and be diligent in this war against the evil desires of the flesh.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:1)